Caption: Plate 314 Engraving by Andrew Bell, Third Edition Encylopedia Britannica 1797-1803. The major pioneering balloons of the 1780's. Top left, the hot air balloon the Montgolfier brothers built for the first manned flight in 1783. Top right, the hydrogen balloon Pierre Blanchard used to cross the English Channel and first to fly in the USA. Bottom left, the first unmanned hydrogen balloon by Messrs Charles and Robert in France. They pioneered many aspects of balloon design still in use today. Bottom right, the balloon built by the Montgolfier brothers which took the first land living animals into the sky as a public experiment to see if man could survive in the skies.